Dortmund join Schalke and Frankfurt in announcing a new Women's team
Pernille Harder. Sam Mewis. Vivianne Miedema. Rose Lavelle. Tobin Heath. With so many of the world's best female players moving to England's professional league, German Bundesliga clubs take more steps to expand their own league.
Borussia Dortmund joined became the third Bundesliga organization this year to announce that they will be forming a new women’s club team. FC Schalke 04 declared the formation of a new women’s team approximately two months ago while Eintracht Frankfurt concluded longstanding talks to merge their amateur women’s team with the top tier 1. FFC Frankfurt earlier this year.
Thursday it was the BVB’s turn. Like Schalke and unlike Frankfurt, the club will not take over a license from an existing professional side. The new team will begin its journey on July 1st 2021 in the amateur Kreisliga B. BVB GmbH managing director Carsten Cramer spoke about the decision to start in the lower ranks at the unveiling.
“It is important for us to strengthen women’s football at Dortmund in the broadest possible sense,” Cramer said, “In service of this, it’s necessary to impose some self-restraint on ourselves.” The stated goal shall be to have the team playing at the top level within a decade.
Cramer confirmed that the idea for the new entity came at the club’s last general meeting. “We got ball rolling over the past few months,” Cramer noted, “and now it’s time to implement it.” Svenja Schenker, the Social Marketing chair at BVB, steered a developmental project group comprised of both club staff members and fan volunteers through the initial stages.
It has been a very noteworthy year for women’s football in Germany. The DFL-developed hygiene-konzept ensured that the Flyeralarm Frauen-Bundesliga was the only European women’s football league capable of completing its domestic season amid the global pandemic. Additionally, the women’s DFB Pokal was completed as part of the German FA’s ambitious re-start project.
Despite this, most of the talented women players continue to gravitate towards England’s WSL. VfL Wolfsburg’s Pernille Harder, for example, recently left the German women’s footballing powerhouse to join Chelsea Ladies. Harder’s incredible season led to her being selected as Germany’s female footballer of the year, an honor she received on the same day that Robert Lewandowski received the men’s prize.
The WSL’s talent level has been further boosted this year through the arrival of the brightest women’s footballers from the United States World Championship side. The world class players were forced to seek European homes when their own domestic league, the NWSL, cancelled its season and replaced it with short tournaments amid the pandemic.
Germany, once a premier destination for top women players, seems to have lost its luster somewhat in light of the WSL’s development. News that three major clubs wish to found their own women’s team at least suggests that the country will move towards being so again.